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In the red corner, the 600lb. gorilla known as Digital
So much for all the camera snobs saying digital cameras would never catch up to film. Nikon is throwing in the cellulose towel. The title “Nikon prepares to strengthen digital line-up for 2006” is almost ironic. This is somehow sad news, even though I was the earliest convert to digital I knew. Even before then, my idea of a fun camera was a thirty year old Asahi Pentax. Spending money on developing black and white film in Japan has always sucked major balls. None of the preceding sentences were really linked, and yet this is a paragraph. Goodbye, film. Interesting fact: My company owns the term, “dejicame.” Pretty cool. (via…
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War Wagons
There’s a couple of automobile-related posts worth your time today. M1114 Humvees are a thing of beauty to U.S. troops in Iraq A Car and Driver correspondent runs missions with the 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad, dodging IEDs and illustrating a different aspect of everyday life over there, as well as timing 0-60 and quarter mile runs in fully-armored military Humvees. Bonus: Story about a 105mm suppository. That donkey story has to be an urban myth, what kind of shithead wires his own cellphone to a bomb? And transportation advice on a different kind of battlefield: Traveling In Bangkok….By Bus! I love traveling by bus in foreign countries, and Thailand…
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Human Nature
One thing that has become apparent with this overseas wedding is simply an old truth – it’s just best to ignore the big mouths. Nam and I have been planning to get married for years; we just never got around to it. Over those long years, I remember each and every person who urged us to have the wedding in Thailand so they could take a vacation there. They promised to attend, of course, like it was no big thing. “For you guys, OF COURSE I’ll be there, you’re family/good friends/important to me…” Well, invitations were sent long ago and the requested RSVP date was the first of December. Guess…
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Afro-puffs
I have been mistaken for AngryBlackBitch. Life is complete (karma’s a bitch, innit?). explanation
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The end is near
The latest round of comment spam here is for GAY FEET. I shit you not.
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Kodak’s New Logo
“In another break with the past, Eastman Kodak Co. is introducing a new corporate logo designed to help the company forge a new image as a cutting-edge, 21st century innovator.” Is it just me, or did some board member’s nephew’s design startup just laugh all the way to the bank? I didn’t think it was possible to make a lower case “a” look both retarded and “cutting-edge” at the same time. If that’s the direction lower case vowels are heading, cOUnt mE OUt, fOOls! It almost goes without saying that the new logo looks much better backwards (this is J’s first axiom of 2006 – ALL SUCKY, REDESIGNED LOGOS LOOK…
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Wedding Schedule – Airset
In order to better facilitate planning for the wedding, we are using a free site called AirSet that provides calendars, etc., as well as flexible security settings. I need to send an invitation via e-mail and you need to register at the site in order for you to get into our group. I sent out a bunch of invites today, but if I forgot you, please drop me a line (cosmicbuddha at gmail dot com).
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News on Korea Site
This is a public warning. I thought a long time before posting this, and it needs to be said. NewsOnJapan.com is a useful site that aggregates, well, news about Japan. I visit it almost every day. It has a sister site, NewsOnKorea.com There is an option on that site to subscribe for e-mail updates. About a month ago, I accidentally found the UNPROTECTED DIRECTORY where they store complete, unobfuscated e-mail addresses of (what I assume to be) their subscribers. I subsequently notified an apparent admin of that site in case they wanted to take action to protect their subscribers’ e-mail addresses. I received no reply. The directory remains open and…
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Fuck a cop
So my wife came back from Thailand last night. This morning, rather. Goddamn Thai Air flight was late 90 minutes, so she missed the last hydrofoil to the island at 9:50 PM. Took a conventional ferry that arrived in the next town over at 2 in the morning. It’s a $50 cab fare (for a fifteen minute ride w/o tolls, don’t get me started on Japanese taxis today), so I went to pick her up. I have to wake up at 6:30 these days, so I went early, parked in the ferry parking lot, and went to sleep with the engine on. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Woke up with a maglite beam in…
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Famous Japanese Americans
This post actually started off as an update to my previous post because I had forgotten to mention one of my newest finds. Guy Kawasaki has started a blog: Let the Good Times Roll He’s kind of an idol for business-minded Japanese Americans, along with Robert Kiyosaki. Politically-minded JA’s are probably more into Senator Inouye or Congressmen Matsui/Honda (or in Hawaii, George Ariyoshi, the first JA governor of a US state. Also, in Los Angeles this might be Paul Tanaka, the current Mayor of Gardena and assistant Sheriff). Academics? Francis Fukuyama or Michio Kaku. Musicians? Hands down, Hiro Yamamoto (original Soundgarden bassist), Seiji Ozawa (Boston Symphony Orchestra), or, more recently,…
